Although correctly identifying disease is essential for successful treatment, many have no way of accessing an accurate diagnosis, the United Nation health agency said on Tuesday, launching new tool to close this critical gap.

“An accurate diagnosis is the first step to getting effective treatment,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“No one should suffer or die because of a lack of diagnostic services, or because the right tests were not available,” he added.

WHO’s first “Essential Diagnostics List” – a catalogue of the tests needed to diagnose the most common conditions as well as numerous diseases deemed to be a “global priority” – concentrates on in vitro tests, such as blood samples or urine specimens.

The list contains more than 100 products involving 58 tests for detecting and diagnosing a wide range of common conditions; and providing an essential package for screening and managing patient care. 

Other tests are designed to detect, diagnose and monitor “priority” diseases, such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus and syphilis. 

Some tests are particularly suitable for primary health care facilities, where laboratory services are often poorly resourced or even non-existent, said WHO. For example, tests that can rapidly diagnose a child for acute malaria, or glucometers to test diabetes, do not require an electrical charging or trained personnel. 

Other tests are more sophisticated and suitable mainly for larger medical facilities.

“Our aim is to provide a tool that can be useful to all countries, to test and treat better, but also to use health funds more efficiently by concentrating on the truly essential tests,” said Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals.

“Our other goal is to signal to countries and developers that the tests in the list must be of good quality; safe and affordable.”

For each test category, the list specifies the type of test, intended use, format and – if appropriate – for primary care or health facilities with laboratories.

The list also provides links to WHO Guidelines or publications and, when available, to prequalified products, as well as a reference point for countries to update or develop their own list of essential diagnostics.

To benefit patients, Governments must ensure appropriate and quality-assured supplies, trained health care workers and safe use. WHO will support countries as they adapt the list for local context.

WHO will update the list on a regular basis and add categories to the next edition. It will expand over the next few years as it incorporates other important health challenges; including antimicrobial resistance, emerging pathogens, neglected tropical diseases and additional noncommunicable diseases.

The United Nations human rights arm has voiced deep concern over escalating conflict between the military and armed groups in Myanmar’s Kachin and Shan provinces that has displaced over 100,000 civilians and trapped many in the midst of active fighting.

“The protracted conflict in Kachin and northern Shan states has already caused immense suffering, and we urge all sides to work to resolve the situation through a genuine, meaningful dialogue,” Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

On Saturday, at least 14 civilians were reportedly killed and over 20 injured in attacks by armed groups, along with a counter-offensive by government troops in Shan province. There are also reports that Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, has used heavy weaponry and aerial bombing in the region.

In addition, at least 7,400 people have been displaced in Kachin since early April, adding to the 100,000 already displaced. About 2,000 of these civilians, who were trying to flee the fighting were trapped in dense jungle, before they were reportedly relocated to other towns in the province.

Many more remain trapped in areas of active fighting, with extremely difficult escape routes through mountains and forests, and in need of humanitarian support – Rupert Colville, OHCHR spokesperson

“Many more remain trapped in areas of active fighting, with extremely difficult escape routes through mountains and forests, and in need of humanitarian support,” said Mr. Colville.

“We urge all sides to exercise restraint and to fully respect human rights and international humanitarian law, ensuring the protection of civilians at all times,” he added.

At the news briefing, the OHCHR spokesperson also raised alarm over reports that peaceful demonstrators calling for an end to hostilities, had been arrested in Kachin.

“We call on the authorities in Myanmar to respect the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression,” said Mr. Colville.

The escalation of conflict in Myanmar’s northern Kachin and eastern Shan provinces (bordering China) comes a few months after widespread violence against the minority Muslim Rohingya community in the country’s Rakhine province, drove more than 700,000 civilians across the border of southern Bangladesh where they are living in overcrowded camps, facing the onset of the approaching monsoon season.

None of the world’s challenges loom as large as climate change, the United Nations chief told a major climate action summit on Tuesday, reiterating his belief that global warming poses an “existential threat” to humanity.

Both leadership and innovation are essential for climate action, Secretary-General António Guterres said in his keynote address to the global gathering, known as the R20 Austrian World Summit – a long-term initiative to help regions, States and cities implement the Sustainable Development Goals and meet the Paris Agreement targets. 

Mr. Guterres spelled out: “We must use all our resources to build a sense of urgency”, to raise ambition, while keeping temperature rises in the years ahead, as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.

He said there was reason to hope, declaring that “the world is seeing a groundswell of climate action”,  citing examples, including Morocco’s building of a solar farm “the size of Paris, that will power over a million homes by 2020” and China’s achievement in already passing it’s 2020 goal of producing 105 gigawatts of solar power capacity.

“We must build on this,” the UN chief emphasized, calling renewable energy – which already produces a fifth of the world’s electricity – power that also delivers significant health benefits.

The World Health Organization reports that more than 80 per cent of people living in urban areas are exposed to poor-quality air that is damaging human health. 

Financing to accelerate climate action is necessary if we are to bend the emissions curve Secretary-General António Guterres

“Investments in clean, green infrastructure need to be scaled up globally,” he explained. “For that, we need leadership from the finance and investment community and by local, regional and national governments who will decide on major infrastructure plans over the coming years.”

Mr. Guterres encouraged private sector leaders attending the UN General Assembly-backed summit in the Austrian capital, to announce new financing for clean energy projects. 

While the 30-member independent International Energy Agency estimates that 2017 investments in renewable electricity amounted to $242 billion, said the UN chief, that was still far less than the funds invested in new fossil fuel development. Billions of dollars more needs to be invested in renewables if we are to see a “full-scale transition to clean energy” by 2020, said Mr. Guterres.

Moreover, some 75 per cent of the infrastructure needed by 2050 has still not been built. 

“Mobilizing and equipping local governments with the capacity and financing to accelerate climate action is necessary if we are to bend the emissions curve,” he maintained. 

Noting that climate change continues to move faster than climate action, Mr. Guterres quoted the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change saying: “The more we disrupt our climate, the more we risk severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts.” 

“But,” he added, “it does not have to be that way,” pointing to solar, wind and cutting-edge technologies, such as electric vehicles or energy from algae in the ocean, which promises a new era of clean air. 

“Let’s join a race to the top, a race where there are only winners,” concluded the Secretary-General.

Medical teams inside Gaza are running out of supplies to cope with the wounded, following the deadliest day of protests against occupation along the border with Israel so far this year, UN aid agencies warned on Tuesday.

Speaking after 58 Palestinians lost their lives and more than 1,300 were injured by Israeli security forces on Monday, the World Health Organization’s Tarik Jasarevic said that life-saving drugs were “urgently needed”.

These include antibiotics and adrenaline, according to the WHO spokesperson, who explained that more than 10 years of blockade had already undermined Gaza’s healthcare capacity.

Two in every five essential drugs were “completely depleted” already this month, Mr Jasarevic explained, adding that essential life-saving medicines for chronic illnesses such as cancer were also “critically low”.

Jens Laerke from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reiterated the difficulties faced by health teams in the enclave: “Medical facilities in Gaza are struggling to deal with the number of casualties and the humanitarian coordinator there, Jamie McGoldrick, has expressed his deep concern by the tragedy unfolding in Gaza after visiting the Shifa Hospital,” he said.

He added that Mr. McGoldrick – who is also UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process – had reported that medical teams at Shifa, in Gaza City, “are overwhelmed, dealing with hundreds of cases of injured, including women and children.”

“They are stretched to the limit and running out of essential medical supplies. He stressed that public hospitals in Gaza have less than a week of fuel reserves to continue their operations”, Mr. Laerke told journalists in Geneva.

The situation has not been helped by the stop-start delivery of humanitarian supplies.

Official statements simply say this is all Hamas’s fault and…just ignore the fact that the children are being killed, women are being killed, unarmed protesters are being killed in large numbers – Rupert Colville (OHCHR)

These usually arrive via Gaza’s main supply point, Kerem Shalom, but it was closed after being damaged, although an aid convoy had been allowed in by Israelis in recent days, Mr Laerke said.

“It has been closed indefinitely following extensive damage to the Gaza side of this crossing by Palestinians on 11 May. However, Israeli authorities have indicated that this crossing will be opened for, ‘select humanitarian needs’ on a case-by-case basis and the day before yesterday they allowed seven trucks to enter Gaza and I understand that six of those trucks were carrying medical supplies.”

Following Monday’s developments in Gaza, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, called for Israel to mount an independent investigation into the deaths and injuries sustained along the border.

OHCHR spokesperson Rupert Colville told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday that six children and a health worker were among the dead and that more than 150 people were in a critical condition.

The rules on the use of force under international law “appear to have been ignored again and again”, Mr Colville said, adding that “it seems anyone is liable to be shot dead or injured: women, children, press personnel, first-responders, bystanders – and at almost any point, up to 700 metres from the fence”.

Ten journalists had also suffered gunshot injuries by the end of the day, Mr Colville said.

A reported 35,000 people took part in Monday’s demonstrations, according to OCHA.

During the protests some Palestinian demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, according to OHCHR’s Mr Colville, who added that others had flown kites laden with “petrol-soaked material” over the fence that separates the two communities.

The response from the Israeli side – with tear gas, plastic bullets and live ammunition – had caused “horrific wounds and lifelong disability”, Mr Colville said, before calling for “credible investigations” by Israel.

“Latterly we only seem to be seeing investigations carried out when there’s a very clear bit of video evidence becoming public through witnesses and bystanders,” he said. “And the official statements simply say this is all Hamas’s fault and…just ignore the fact that the children are being killed, women are being killed, unarmed protesters are being killed in large numbers.”

So I think with the State of Israel it’s very important for credible investigations into these very serious, very serious events and very possibly, very serious crimes as well.”

Confirming that Israel had a right to defend its borders, the OHCHR spokesperson said that its soldiers should do so in accordance with international norms on the use of lethal force.

“You just have to look at the casualty figures on both sides to see that it’s not being used as a last resort,” he said, adding that Israel was obliged “under international law, to handle these demonstrations in a way that preserves life, unless they own lives are very clearly directly threatened, which has not been the case.”

UN human rights experts also condemned the killings and Israel’s use of live ammunition against mostly-unarmed protesters.

“Despite Israel’s commitment to investigate the events of the past few weeks, security forces continue to use live ammunition and rubber bullets against the protesters, killing and wounding dozens of mostly unarmed protesters, women, men and children alike,” said a group of six Special Rapporteurs, in a joint statement. 

“We express our outrage over these shootings that may have resulted in unlawful killings and the incomprehensibly high number of injuries sustained,” the statement added.